Football Manager save files can't be carried over year-on-year for tech and legal reasons

"Even if we found a technical way to do it, from a legal perspective it's: nope."

I've been playing Football Manager for a long time. And while I love tinkering with each annual instalment's newest features, I really don't like leaving behind a save file that boasts hundreds of hours in the process.

The question is: is carrying over saves year-on-year at least possible?

"Both technologically and legally, the answer to that is no," Sports Interactive's Miles Jacobson tells me. "When we do our licensing deals, they are for a specific season and there comes a point where you have to stop selling the game as well. We only have the license for that club data, for example, for that particular season."

Jacobson continues, suggesting that even if there was a "magical" technological way to implement old saves into new games, the fact that data changes year-on-year makes it impossible.

He adds: "You have more features, you're adding more data or tweaking the way it works. Those databases can't transfer back because the game will be going: sorry, what's this number? What does this mean? Again, even if we found a technical way to do it, from a legal perspective it's: nope."

Look out for our extensive interview with Miles Jacobson on Monday, where we chat about the past, present and future of FM, and how the esteemed management sim informs modern day real life football.